How to Watch Movies and DVDs In Your Car

If you have kids or travel a lot having a movie you can watch is a nice luxury to have. While portable DVD players are nice they can be troublesome and the DVDs can get ruined. For the best selection and options this is the best setup.

Portable Media Player

These players will replace your traditional DVD player and support a wide range of video files, MP3s, and other media you want to watch. These screens have a built in battery and provide high definition video watching. When you select your media player make sure it has an RCA or component video out. This allows you to expand what you’re watching to the other monitors or screens in the car. Many personal video screens don’t have any type of output so be careful when selecting your player. With this particular model you will need a small monitor to see what the other screens are seeing.

This player holds 500GB of video, audio, and images. This unit is small and plays almost all file formats. Once you load this puppy up you won’t have to worry about DVDs getting scratched or ruined.

Monitors

Next, you’ll need some monitors. I was surprised to see the wide array of monitors available at a low cost. You can get two headrest monitors (pre-installed) for less than $300 for both of them. I was also amazed at how inexpensive in dash DVD players had become.

Headrest monitors have a few advantages since they are easy to install, have large screens, and run the wires in the middle of the seat. Hooking up power and the video connection are fairly easy. The only downside is that the basic colors, grey, dark grey, black, and tan can be slightly off from your original leather or upholstery.

Visor monitors are handy for passengers that want to watch video. I’m not sure on this but I imagine most states don’t allow drivers to watch movies while they’re driving.

Flip down monitors are nice because everyone in the back seat(s) can watch the same monitor. The downside is the installation can be more difficult and some drivers complain that the flip down screen obstructs their rear view sight.

Backup cameras serve two purposes 1) Helping you see what’s behind you when you’re backing up and 2) they can help you see what the rear view passengers are seeing if you’ve bought a personal media hard drive (like the Argosy above).

Extra A/C Power

If you want to plug in regular plugs from your house hold products you’ll need an inverter. An inverter changes DC to AC power. These are a good idea because they power laptops, video game consoles, chargers, and other appliances. The best way to install these is to take power straight from the battery. You can also run it from the cigerette lighter but it only allows you to draw 150 Watts that way.

Stand Alone Media Players

For single people, or those that want to watch something entirely different than everyone else the,re are players like this. These are also nice because they can be taken on planes and other trips without any problems.